The Cervical Screening Test can find HPV early so it can be monitored and actions taken before cancer has a chance to develop. Even if cervical cancer is found, if it’s found early it can usually be successfully treated.
Yet only 51%1 of First Nations women had a Cervical Screening Test in the last 5 years, compared to 78% of the total population2. First Nations women are also 2 times more likely to be diagnosed with cervical cancer and 3.4 times more likely to die from cervical cancer compared to the general population2.
Reports show that, along with low awareness of the benefits of cervical screening, First Nations women and people with a cervix are less likely to be aware of important changes to cervical cancer prevention and cervical screening over the last few years including the test, screening intervals, starting age and the introduction of the self-collect option.
To help guide more life-saving conversations, we’ve developed new, tailored cervical screening resources for First Nations women and people with a cervix. The Swish with your sistas resources were created with and endorsed by First Nations women across the country and are designed to be educational, culturally safe, and empowering.
The Swish with your sistas resources can be used to:
- engage and raise awareness of cervical screening
- reassure and provide information for patients who want to know more
- start and guide clinical conversations
- provide written and visual instructions on how to do the self-collect test.
Reaching First Nations women and people with a cervix who are overdue for screening or who have never screened is critical to ensuring less people are diagnosed or lose their life to cervical cancer.
Help First Nations women do cervical screening – it could save their life
Healthcare providers play an important role in cervical screening uptake and delivery. Along with displaying and providing the Swish with your sistas resources in your clinic or practice, you can:
- check your patient’s cervical screening histories and remind them to screen when due
- tell patients about the benefits of cervical screening and explain why it’s important to check early, before symptoms appear
- answer questions and reassure patients cervical screening is a straightforward process that is private and confidential
- explain the options for having a Cervical Screening Test and the difference between self-collected and healthcare provider-collected tests
- provide instructions for the self-collected test, if they choose this option
- create a comfortable space for healthcare provider-collected tests
- advise how and when results will be provided
- remind patients screening is every 5 years, if no HPV is found on their test
- support patients with any follow up tests or procedures they may need.
Find more information and resources for healthcare providers on how to engage Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients in cervical screening.
1 Data taken from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander specific primary health care: results from the OSR and nKPI collections (Cervical screening: PI22) and refers to clients who visited a particular primary healthcare provider 3 or more times in the previous 2 years.
2 Data taken from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s National Cervical Screening Program monitoring report 2025